Event Director, Anthony Swift on a recent visit to the Mediterranean crossroads of East and West and Africa and Europe, said “The juxtaposition of sea, rolling hills, volcano and mountain scenery combined with a myriad of grape varieties and unique terroirs will make for a stunning stage for both the IWINETC 2017 and for the pre and post conference visit programmes”.

The region of Catania has been chosen for the location of the prestigious IWINETC with the massive brooding presence of the ever active Mongibello (Mount Etna) set to keep conference delegates all ears during the many talks. Two of Italy’s hottest wines at the moment – Etna Rosso (made from indigenous varieties, Nerello Mascalese & Nerello Capuccio) and Etna Bianco (made from indigenous varieties Carricante, Catarrato & Minnella) will no doubt flow at IWINETC.

Sicily’s vineyards cover around 120,000 hectares, making it the second largest wine producing region in Italy. From Marsala to Etna and from the Aeolian Islands to Ragusa and Agrigento, conference delegates are sure to be in for a memorable varied wine & culinary tourism experience.

For those of you who attended IWINETC 2016, many thanks for taking time out to join us – we hope you enjoyed IWINETC as much as we did! For those of you who couldn’t attend, here’s a glimpse of whatyou missed out on…..

IWINETC 2016 Catalunya was a truly memorable edition which over five days provided participants with a packed seminar programme, a wine tourism workshop full of business opportunities, networking events including wine tastings, winery dinners and visits and Fam Trip programmes to the 12 designations of Origen in Catalunya.

For those of you who attended IWINETC 2016, thank you for joining us – we hope you enjoyed the event as much as we did! And for those of you who didn’t attend, here’s what you missed out on…..

IWINETC 2016 – The Conference Programme

Thanks again to all attendees at IWINETC this year, and to our Premium sponsors the Catalan Tourist Board and the Barcelona Province Tourist Board and to all our partners and sponsors for their continuous support.

We look forward to catching up with you at IWINETC 2017. Ci vediamo in Italia !

We wanted to say a thank you to all attendees at IWINETC this year, and to our Premium sponsors the Catalan Tourist Board and the Barcelona Province Tourist Board and to all our partners and sponsors for their continuous support.

We have already published most of the speaker notes/ slides and they can be viewed by clicking on the following link:

Closing IWINETC 2016 Catalunya on a massive high – the wine & culinary tourism world connects in Barcelona Province.

Riding a growth wave, the 8th International Wine Tourism Conference, Exhibition & Workshop closed on Thursday 7th April in Barcelona province where the global wine tourism industry and particularly the host destination, Catalunya showed that it was in good shape.

Knowledge, Business & Networking was the IWINETC theme this year for almost 300 delegates from 32 different countries attending with significant attendance from grape escape destinations such as Greece, Italy, Moldova, Spain and of course host region, Catalunya. The Wine Tourism Workshop with more than 1,000 appointments scheduled before the start of IWINETC proved to be the business highlight of the event with many more meetings conducted at the exhibition area during the 2 day conference programme of 30 talks.

“The wine tourism industry is clearly on the rise and can no longer be called a small niche market with so many wine regions around the world investing significantly in this kind of tourism. The future is bright for all who understand that wine tourism is a sustainable business opportunity” said Anthony Swift, Director of IWINETC.

The announcement that IWINETC will be heading to Italy in 2017 was met with a great reaction by IWINETC attendees.

This year saw a heavy emphasis on networking events including a pre-conference day of winery visits to 5 of the 50 Great Cava producers 2016. Evenings were enjoyed with Gala Dinners taking place at both of the event’s Gold Sponsors: Freixenet and Torres. Several wine tasting events within the talk programme provided a chance to discover diverse grape escape destinations and wines from Catalunya, Greece & Hungary as well as Cava (Penedès) in the IWINETC Grand Cava Tasting led by Master of Wine, Sarah Jane Evans.

65 Tour operators divided up into 4 groups discovered Catalunya as a grape escape destination with visits programmed to cover all 12 designations of origin of Catalunya. A group of international media, 16 strong also followed a visit programme.

Summing up IWINETC 2016 Anthony Swift added, “Our objectives for IWINETC every year is to provide the stage for wine and culinary tourism professionals from around the world to gain knowledge and ideas, for agents and wine tourism experience providers to meet, do business and connect through networking. This year the buzz was obvious from the moment pre-conference tours began and at the Welcome Reception. The opening announcements
and the opening plenary session delivered by Premium sponsors the Catalan Tourist Board and the Barcelona Province Tourist Board had a full house where some 250 people attended along with important media such as TV3. As a team, we focus on delivering a quality experience because at the end of the event there is only one thing that matters – happy participants who leave taking away positive results for their careers and/or business.”

The IWINETC Conference, Exhibition and Workshop 2016 has now closed. A whole year of planning resulted in a truly memorable event for all involved. We wanted to thank you for taking the time to attend, and a special mention goes to all of our partners and sponsors for their continuous support.

The Wine Tourism Workshop saw a packed full day programme of one to one meetings with tour operators and travel agents specialized in wine and/or culinary tourism meeting with wine tourism experience providers from around the world to discuss business possibilities for the FIT, Group and MICE markets.

Lunch time provided the opportunity for agents to try some of the varied wine styles from diverse regions such as Costers del Segre, Hungary, Porto, Penedès, Manchuela, Ribera del Duero, Rioja, Sicily, Tuscany to name just a few.

Meanwhile, some of the Conference delegates stayed on to participate in a one day wine tasting tour to discover some of the beautiful wine regions (4 Designations of Origen) of Catalonia:

Here’s a few highlights from the final day of the Conference talk programme at IWINETC….

We had some fantastic sessions taking place in the all three rooms at the Barcelona Golf Hotel, giving delegates plenty of food for thought not only for professional development but also valuable business ideas and tips.

The Grape Escape themed talks provided tour operators and agents with several diverse grape escape destinations to consider such as Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, and India. Several mini tastings of wines from each country was well received.

The exhibition area proved once again a popular spot to discover grape escape options while simultaneously networking with fellow professionals

The closing plenary session saw Italy revealed as the 2017 destination for IWINETC

And finally…

We wanted to say a personal thank you for attending IWINETC this year, and to Premium Sponsors (Catalan Tourist Board and the Barcelona Province Tourist Board) and to all our sponsors and supporters for their continuous support. If you are leaving us today, have a safe journey home and we look forward to sharing our full IWINETC highlights, photos and videos with you in the coming weeks – so keep an eye out!

IWINETC continues tomorrow with the eagerly awaited Wine Tourism Workshop where 65 tour operators will hold b2b meetings with wine tourism experience providers from around the world and of course with host destination Catalunya

Also going on tomorrow are the wine tasting tours to the Cava and Penedès wine regions and to the Concà de Barberà and Tarragona wine regions.

The IWINETC Conference Talk programme began shortly after the doors opened. Conference delegates flocked to the opening plenary session Wine Country Catalonia for a trip around the region with the Director General AGÈNCIA CATALANA DE TURISME, Sr. Xavier Espasa & Sr. Miquel Forns, Diputat de Turisme de la Diputació de Barcelona.

The Exhibition area was well visited and many wines from around Europe were available to taste.

The Official IWINETC Grand Cava Tasting led by Master of Wine Sarah Jane Evans revealed through the tasting of 8 Premium Cavas why it’s time to stop laughing at this Spanish sparkler which is ready to compete with the best.

New business connections were made throughout the day and the day ended in style with a delightful Gala dinner at Freixenet where we were graced with the presence of Pere Ferrer.

Here’s what delegates can look forward to tomorrow…

There is plenty to look forward to tomorrow, so be ready for a packed day of conference talks, tastings and networking events.

It’s been a great day for Cava today, here are just a few of the highlights…

IWINETC Networking events kicked off today with visit s to 5 producers with Cavas amongst the 50 Great Cavas competition 2016 namely Codorníu, Gramoma, LLopart, Vallformosa & Vilarnau. A minority resisted the Cava temptation and chose to do a Spa circuit in the Hotel Barcelona Golf Resort or got their swing and putting skills into shape at the Golf Clinic session.

The IWINETC Welcome Reception took place last night with a few words from Director General AGÈNCIA CATALANA DE TURISME, Sr. Xavier Espasa & Sr. Miquel Forns, Diputat de Turisme de la Diputació de Barcelona and this was followed by a Catalan feast of local dishes including:

A varied selection of cured meats and cheeses from Catalunya

The famous, simple but exquisite pan con tomate

Xatonada de Sitges – a kind of fishy meaty salad with a romesco sauce

A salad of broad beans, ham and mint

Calcots de Vallls – those elongated onions dipped in romesco sauce

The classic ¨Paella¨

The Paella alternative Fideos arrossejats

Meatballs made with meat and squid………and so many more – I expect we all found a favourite!

If you had any room you would have had one of the delicious deserts on offer such as

The infamous Crema Catalana

Music amb Moscatell – selection of nuts washed down with Moscatell

Strawberries with a touch of Chardonnay

Carquiñols – rock hard almond chunks which you should have dipped into a bit of Moscatell before eating.

All of which was savoured with one or two or all 3 of the great wines provided courtesy of Codorníu.

Here’s what you can look forward to tomorrow…

There is plenty to look forward to tomorrow, so get a good nights sleep and be ready for a busy day of talks that will give you and/or your business a competitive edge.

At 09.30 Welcome and Opening Announcements – a few words of welcome from the Directora General de Turisme de la GENERALITAT DE CATALUNYA, Sra. Marian Muro and Sr. Miquel Forns, Diputat de Turisme de la Diputació de Barcelona and this is immediately followed by the Opening plenary session Wine Country Catalonia with Director General AGÈNCIA CATALANA DE TURISME, Sr. Xavier Espasa and Sr Miquel Forns, Diputat de Turisme de la Diputació de Barcelona (Simultaneous Translation) Languages: Catalan & English

As you make your way to IWINETC we just wanted to wish everyone a warm welcome and we are looking forward to seeing you for the first day of networking events and the evening Welcome reception at 20.00 in the Barcelona Golf Hotel for a few words of welcome from our Premium Sponsors the Agència Catalana de Turisme and la Diputació de Barcelona. This will be followed by a feast of Catalan cuisine with a wide selection of local products from Vilanova to L’ Escala and from Valls to Cerdanya. Wines DO Cava, DOQ Priorat and DO Costers del Segre will be served to match dishes courtesy of Codorníu

The exhibition area is looking fantastic and there looks to be plenty of wine to taste from diverse grape escape destinations such as Northern Greece, Puglia, Tuscany, Manchuela, Penedès, Somontano and hosts Catalunya.

On Tuesday 5th of April remember to arrive early so you don’t miss the opening announcements from theDirectora General de Turisme de la GENERALITAT DE CATALUNYA, Sra. Marian Muro and from Miquel Forns, Diputat de Turisme de la Diputació de Barcelona which is followed by the opening plenary session at 09.30 delivered by Xavier Espassa, General Manager of the Catalan Tourist Board & Miquel Forns, Councillor for the Barcelona Province Tourist Board.

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International Wine Tourism Conference

Founded in Spain in 2009, the International Wine Tourism Conference has now accommodated over 700 wine tourism professionals in 45 different countries throughout the world.

Though opportunities for international networking, professional development, and world class industry information you will find that our conferences and workshops offer unique ways to discover grape escape destinations around the world.

IWINETC is the destination for those involved in wine, gastronomy and tourism. So come along and share your point of view and gain from the experience of others.